Chapter 5: How Much She Is Disliked

“Daydreaming again?”

An old man with white hair and a white beard sat down in front of a young girl. The girl’s eyes were dull, and her face lacked any expression, as if her soul had been stripped away.

“Ever since I picked you up, you’ve been like this. Can’t you at least smile for your master?”

The old man sighed. “Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to raise you this big?”

“You have never once called me Master.”

The girl lifted her face. Her eyes could reflect things, yet they lacked all emotion.

The old man reached out and placed his hand on her hair. “With you like this, you shouldn’t go down the mountain. It’s better if the chaos of the outside world never touches your heart. Just live cleanly like this, and die cleanly.”

The girl stared blankly at the old man, then lowered her head and sat there quietly once more.

In truth, no one knew that she wasn’t missing a soul or a spirit, nor was she lacking in wit; it was simply because she was filled with deep, unresolved resentment.

Until she opened her eyes again, she heard the chaotic sounds from outside, and she could smell the aroma of stir-fried meat.

Someone was cooking meat. What a fragrant scent.

She sat up and covered her face with her hands. When she lowered them, her eyes were reddened, and the corners of her lips were suddenly curled upward. In her previously calm eyes, a sudden brilliance rose, but as that brilliance passed, it eventually settled into a profound, lonely stillness.

She knew she had been reborn.

Reborn to half a year after she had left the Xu family. No, before this, she had lived another life—the life of the child picked up by the old man, the life of that girl filled with resentment.

She resented her mother’s death, she resented her own stupidity, and she resented even more the dozen years the Xu family spent lying to her, coaxing her, and deceiving her. Even if she were to live a few more lifetimes, she wouldn’t want that. She only wanted to be Liu Liang.

And now…

She clenched her hands tightly.

The clear sensation of warmth and everything around her were proof.

She was back.

Back to be Liu Liang, back to make up for her mistakes, and back to take revenge for all that humiliation.

Not far away, a schoolbag lay on the ground. She walked over and picked it up. This was the one she had brought back from the Xu family—no, it couldn’t be called bringing it back; it was the Xu family throwing it back along with her.

It was something the Xu family didn’t want.

She was like trash, discarded once, and then discarded a second time.

Even if she weren’t a human, but a small cat or dog, a dozen years of companionship would surely foster some affection. But for the Xu family, she was nothing.

And what was she thinking about at this time in her previous life?

She had been thinking about whether the Xu family missed her, whether they would take her back to be their wealthy young lady again. She still believed in those people from the Xu family, thinking they saw her as one of their own, that they couldn’t bear to part with the years of raising her or the years they had spent together.

But later, she realized that in the eyes of the Xu family, she was nothing. She was just a clown, a servant who didn’t even need to be paid.

Even servants were paid wages, especially someone like her who did every kind of chore. For over a decade, she hadn’t received a single cent. It was only later that she found out her tuition fees had actually been paid by her biological mother.

Perhaps the only thing that kept her from dying of shame was that she had been so afraid of being kicked out of the Xu family that she had broken her habit of spending money. She didn’t dare buy anything; she wore the clothes Xu Jiajia didn’t want, and the same went for her shoes. It was precisely because she was so frugal that her mother hadn’t had to sell her blood or risk her life for money.

That was why she had always wanted to return to the Xu family. But in this life, even if she had to work like a beast of burden or be a beggar, she would never return to that place, never see those sanctimonious people, and never face those hypocritical faces again.

She took the money out of the schoolbag. As the memories of her two lives merged, she found that her memory of the present seemed clearer than it had been initially. Perhaps she had forgotten too much, but everyone is a human for the first time, and no one knows what will happen tomorrow, so she would think about it slowly and remember it bit by bit.

She straightened the money, put some in her pocket, opened the door, and walked out.

As soon as the door opened, the scent of food from outside rushed toward her. She couldn’t help but swallow her saliva. After sleeping, she felt extremely hungry; the dumplings she had eaten at noon had long since been digested.

“Liangliang, are you going out?”

The old woman saw Liu Liang and greeted her with a smile.

Liu Liang still couldn’t quite remember the old woman’s surname. It seemed to be Wang, or perhaps Zhu.

In the end, she could only pull the corners of her mouth into a smile.

“Hello, Grandma. I’m going out to buy some vegetables.”

The old woman was stunned, as if she couldn’t quite react. By the time she came to her senses, Liu Liang had already walked away.

“This child, how did she suddenly change her temperament?”

She muttered to herself, then shook her head and continued cooking on the stove by the door.

As for the changed Liu Liang, she had followed her memory to find the place where vegetables were sold. It wasn’t that her memory was precise, but because there was only one vegetable market here, and it wasn’t far from the tenement building. People getting off work were all carrying some vegetables, and some were coming out of that alley, so Liu Liang guessed the market was there.

When she arrived, she realized her guess was correct.

She walked through the vegetable market. In the nineties, even the scales were the oldest kind; there weren’t even electronic scales. At this time, there were quite a few people in the market, all wearing the clothes characteristic of this era—no bright, gaudy colors, no variety. Most women were plain-faced, without the colorful makeup of the future. It was simple and clean, just like the weather today—no smog, no sandstorms.

She walked around, listening to others bargaining, and memorized the prices of the vegetables. She had been worried that she wouldn’t have enough money, but she found that the prices were much cheaper than she had imagined, and many were calculated in cents.

Compared to the high prices of the future, the prices at this time were truly wonderful, and everything was organic and pesticide-free.

When she came out of the market, her hands were full of things. She walked back to the tenement building. The old woman wasn’t there, and she breathed a sigh of relief because she really didn’t know how to talk to her. As for the others, when they saw her, they acted as if they hadn’t. Vaguely, she remembered that she hadn’t been familiar with anyone in the building. After arriving here for half a year, she had gone to the Xu family. The only one she remembered was the old woman; she couldn’t even recall the faces of the others.

Furthermore, at that time, she was still dreaming the beautiful dream of being the Xu family’s young lady, looking down on the poor people in the tenement building, thinking they were inferior, while she was high and mighty, superior, and unique.

Only later did she realize.

She was no different. She was just a person, like dust, who needed to live, eat, drink, and excrete.

Sure enough, the others in the building had always been indifferent to her. When she left, no one looked at her twice, and when she returned, no one asked her a single question.

It was clear just how much she was disliked by everyone.

(End of chapter)